Mountain Rescue is one of only a very few truly great acts of public service. The public loves our volunteers; and Mountain Rescue are true volunteers – unpaid professionals providing a totally free service to our communities. Their efforts allow everyone to roam free in our mountains, and this we must preserve at all costs. Mountain Rescue must not become a corporate identity – its local ownership, and precisely its local knowledge and expertise, is what is essential to maintaining this community-based emergency rescue service.
There are 48 Mountain Rescue teams in England and Wales, with a further 27 teams in Scotland. Team members are on call 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Operations demand an extremely high commitment from everyone involved, and a typical rescue may involve up to 20 team members for around 6 hours. There are over 1,100 rescues each year in England and Wales, and over half of these occur in the Lake District.
As MP for Penrith and the Border and Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Mountain Rescue, this week Rory gathered around 50 MPs and Lords to meet the Mountain and Cave Rescue teams of England and Wales. The event is in conjunction with a week-long exhibition taking place in the Upper Committee Waiting […]
Rory, yesterday chaired an important meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group, resolving to organise a ‘Mountain Rescue’ day in Westminster. This follows on from the success of Cumbria Day earlier this year. The event will raise awareness of the excellent work that Mountain Rescue groups do across the country. The APPG group welcomes members […]
Rory on Saturday attended the launch event at Penrith’s Go Outdoors centre for a new adventure learning organisation which will help young people complete their Duke of Edinburgh awards. ACActive, in conjunction with Cumbria Youth Alliance, has set up an open award centre which aims to ensure that any young person who would like the opportunity […]
Rory had the honour of being the first MP to ever give a keynote speech at the UK Mountain Rescue’s bi-ennial conference, held last weekend at the Headingly University campus in Leeds, and attended by teams from around the UK. The conference this year focused on technology and its applications for mountain rescue and search-and-rescue […]
Rory has spent part of his summer recess out walking with Mountain Rescue operations in Cumbria, ahead of giving a keynote talk at the biennial UK and Ireland Mountain Rescue Conference to be held in Leeds next month. Rory spent a morning climbing Helvellyn with two of the Patterdale Team’s Deputy Team Leaders – Matt […]
Rory continued his campaigning work as rural emergency services champion in Parliament yesterday, convening both a meeting with Mountain and Cave Rescue to discuss standard operating procedures, speaking in the parliament debate on Air Ambulance, and supporting a motion for a VAT rebate for Air Ambulances. Yesterday’s Commons debate centered on the “Return VAT on […]
Rory, who is Chairman of the APPG on Mountain Rescue, visited Penrith Mountain Rescue’s Tynefield Drive base on Friday to meet with staff, discuss the team’s operations, and talk about their needs to move to a larger base in the area. Penrith Mountain Rescue comprises a large team of 40 with three vehicles, covering a […]
Rory last week hosted a meeting in Westminster of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mountain Rescue, which included presentations from David Allan of Mountain Rescue and James Williams of the Medic Alert Foundation, and a wide-ranging discussion of the problems currently facing Mountain Rescue organisations not only in Cumbria, but across the UK. It was […]